Stephen Graham facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Stephen Graham OBE
Graham in August 2013
Born	(1973-08-03) 3 August 1973 (age 51) Kirkby, Lancashire, England
Occupation	Actor producer
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Hannah Walters ​ (m. 2008)​
Children	2

Stephen Joseph Graham OBE (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He began his career in 1990, with early notable roles including Tommy in Snatch (2000) and Shang in Gangs of New York (2002), before his breakthrough role as Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film This Is England (2006).

On television, Graham reprised his role as Combo in This Is England '86 (2010), This Is England '88 (2011), and This Is England '90 (2015). He also starred as Det. Supt. Dave Kelly in the 2017 drama Little Boy Blue, John Corbett in the fifth series of Line of Duty (2019), Al Capone in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014), Eric McNally in the BBC drama Time (2021), and Hayden Stagg in the sixth series of Peaky Blinders (2022).

Graham's film roles include Scrum in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Anthony Provenzano in The Irishman (2019), Andy Jones in Boiling Point (2021) and its sequel series of the same name (2023), and Patrick Mulligan in Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) and its sequel Venom: The Last Dance (2024). He has received numerous accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, nominations for five British Academy Television Awards and two British Academy Film Awards, and an OBE. In 2020, he co-founded the production company Matriarch Productions alongside his wife, actress Hannah Walters.

Early life

Graham was born on 3 August 1973 in Kirkby, Lancashire. His father was of half Jamaican and half Swedish descent. He was brought up by his mother, a social worker, and his stepfather, a mechanic who later became a paediatric nurse. He maintained a good relationship with his biological father. He attended Overdale Primary School in Kirkby, where he was encouraged to pursue an acting career at the age of eight by local actor Andrew Schofield, who had seen him perform as Jim Hawkins in a school production of Treasure Island. He then continued his education at Ruffwood Comprehensive and was subsequently introduced to Liverpool's Everyman Theatre at the age of 14, later going on to train at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance.

Career

Graham has often portrayed characters from different parts of Britain, Ireland, and America, receiving praise for his accent work. He began his career in 1990, with early notable roles including Tommy in Snatch (2000), Myron “Mike” Ranney in Band of Brothers (2001), and Shang in Gangs of New York (2002), before his breakout role as Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film This Is England (2006). He was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for This Is England He appeared as the Scrum in the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, a role he reprised in the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, starring alongside his wife Hannah Walters.

Graham was nominated for an RTS Award for his work in The Street, and for a British Independent Film Award for his work in This Is England. He appeared in the music videos for "I Remember" by Deadmau5 and Kaskade, "Fluorescent Adolescent" and "When the Sun Goes Down" by Arctic Monkeys, "Unlovable" by Babybird (directed by Johnny Depp), and Gazelle's single "Finger on the Trigger". Graham also appeared in the music video "Soul Vampire" by Macclesfield-based band The Virginmarys, the music video for "Turn" by Travis, and Kasabian's video "You're in Love with a Psycho". He appeared as an inmate within the open prison system in the music video for Goldie's "I Adore You" in 2017, and also starred in Sam Fender's music video for "Spit of You".

In 2011, Graham starred in the BBC Christmas show Lapland. When the series was remade as Being Eileen Graham's role was recast with Dean Andrews. He also appeared on a promotional video for a DLC of the video game Call of Duty: Ghosts, titled "CODnapped".

In 2019, Graham featured as DS John Corbett in series 5 of the BBC drama Line of Duty. In November of that year, Graham was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. In January 2020, he appeared in the ITV series White House Farm as Welsh detective "Taff" Jones. Despite his reputation for his ability to adopt different accents, a number of critics criticised his performance and stated that his Welsh accent was inauthentic. Later that year, he co-founded the production company Matriarch Productions alongside Walters.

In 2021, Graham starred alongside Walters in the film Boiling Point, directed by his Band of Brothers co-star Philip Barantini. A one-shot film set in a restaurant kitchen, the film was expanded from a 2019 short film of the same name. In October 2022, it was announced that Graham would reprise his role in a BBC One series airing in 2023 as a sequel to the film, which was also called Boiling Point.

Personal life

Graham began dating actress and producer Hannah Walters after they met while training as actors at Rose Bruford College, and they were married on 6 June 2008. They live in Ibstock, Leicestershire, having previously lived in the Beckenham area of London. They have a son and a daughter together. They have appeared together onscreen multiple times.

Graham is teetotal and has dyslexia, revealing in 2019 that Walters reads scripts for him and helps him decide whether to accept a role. He is a lifelong supporter of Liverpool FC and has made several appearances on Soccer AM.

Graham was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to drama, which he dedicated to his mother, who died in 2022.

Filmography

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Dancin' Thru the Dark	Football Kid
1991	Blonde Fist	Son
1997	Downtime	Jacko
1998	Joint Venture	Ace	Short film
2000	Snatch	Tommy
2001	Blow Dry	Photographer
	The Last Minute	DJ Banana
2002	Revengers Tragedy	Officer
	Gangs of New York	Shang
2003	American Cousins	Henry
	Without You	Billy	Short film
2004	The I Inside	Travis
2005	Pit Fighter	Harry
	Goal!	Des
2006	Scummy Man	George	Short film
	This Is England	Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne
2007	The Good Night	Victor
2008	Filth and Wisdom	Harry Beecham
	The Crew	Franner
	Inkheart	Fulvio
2009	The Devil's Wedding	The Hotelier	Short film
	Awaydays	Godden
	The Damned United	Billy Bremner
	Doghouse	Vince
	Public Enemies	Baby Face Nelson
2010	London Boulevard	Danny
	Season of the Witch	Hagamar
2011	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	Scrum
	Texas Killing Fields	Rhino
	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	Jerry Westerby
	Being Eileen	Pete Lewis
2012	Best Laid Plans	Danny
	Blood	Chrissie Fairburn
2014	Get Santa	Barber
	Hyena	David Knight
2015	A Patch of Fog	Robert Green
	Orthodox	Benjamin	Executive producer
2017	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	Scrum
	Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool	Joe Turner Jr.
	Journey's End	Trotter
	Funny Cow	Mike
	Being Keegan	Jay	Short film
	The Man with the Iron Heart	Heinrich Himmler
2018	Yardie	Rico
	Walk like a Panther	Mark Bolton
2019	Hellboy	Gruagach	Voice
	Rocketman	Dick James
	The Irishman	Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano
	Boiling Point	Chef	Short film, adapted into a feature in 2021
	Pop	Pop
2020	Greyhound	Lieutenant Commander Charlie Cole
2021	Venom: Let There Be Carnage	Patrick Mulligan
	Boiling Point	Andy Jones
2022	Matilda the Musical	Mr. Wormwood
2024	Young Woman and the Sea	Bill Burgess
	Buffalo Kids	Uncle Niall	English version, Voice role
	Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness	Léopold Zborowski
	Venom: The Last Dance	Patrick Mulligan
	Blitz	Albert
2025	Deliver Me from Nowhere	Douglas Springsteen	Filming
TBA	The Immortal Man	Hayden Stagg	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Children's Ward	Mickey Bell	2 episodes
1993	Heartbeat	Barry Ward	Episode: "Riders of the Storm"
1996	Devil's Food	WPKV News Director	Television film
1997	The Lakes	Graham	Episode #1.1
1998	Brothers and Sisters	Andrew
	Where the Heart Is	Nick Bowen	Episode: "Darkness Follows"
	Liverpool 1	Thewlis	2 episodes
	The Jump	Peter McNulty
1998–2002	The Bill	Jezzo / Jason Barrett	3 episodes
1999	Coronation Street	Lee Sankey	5 episodes
2000	Forgive and Forget	John	Television film
2001	Band of Brothers	Sgt. Myron "Mike" Ranney	2 episodes
2002	Flesh and Blood	Eddie	Television film
2004	Top Buzzer	Lee	10 episodes
2005	M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team	Jason Phelps	Episode #2.3
	Last Rights	Steve	Miniseries
	Empire	Bazzer
2006–2007	The Innocence Project	Andrew Lucas	6 episodes
2008	The Passion	Barabbas	3 episodes
	Occupation	Danny Ferguson
	The Street	Shay Ryan	2 episodes
2010	This Is England '86	Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne	2 episodes
2010–2014	Boardwalk Empire	Al Capone	36 episodes
2011	This Is England '88	Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne	2 episodes
	Walk like a Panther	Mark Bolton	Episode #1.1
2012	Accused	Tony	Episode: "Tracie's Story"
	Parade's End	Vincent Macmaster	5 episodes
	Good Cop	Noel Finch	1 episode
2013	Playhouse Presents	Len	Episode: "The Call Out"
2015	This Is England '90	Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne	3 episodes
2016	The Secret Agent	Chief Inspector Heat	3 episodes
	The Watchman	Carl	Television film
2017	Decline and Fall	Philbrick	3 episodes
	Taboo	Atticus	8 episodes
	Little Boy Blue	Detective Superintendent Dave Kelly	4 episodes
2018	Action Team	Gavril	Episode: "Mind Games"
2018–2020	Save Me	Fabio "Melon" Melonzola	Main role
2019	Line of Duty	John Corbett	Series 5, Main Role
	The Virtues	Joseph	4 episodes
	A Christmas Carol	Jacob Marley	Miniseries
2020	White House Farm	DCI Taff Jones	6 episodes
2020–2022	Code 404	DI Roy Carver	Main role
2021	Time	Eric McNally	Three-part drama
	The North Water	Captain Brownlee	Miniseries
	Help	Tony	Television film
2022	Peaky Blinders	Hayden Stagg	Series 6; 2 episodes
	The Walk-In	Matthew Collins	Main role
2023	Boiling Point	Andy	BBC Television sequel series
	Bodies	Elias Mannix	Main role
2025	A Thousand Blows	Sugar Goodson	Disney+ series; also executive producer
TBA	Adolescence	Eddie Miller	Netflix series; also writer and executive producer

Music videos

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Stephen Graham para niños